We are a society that seems to embrace balance without question. It is easy to speak those words or nod in agreement when others convey the sentiment. I mean, what can be wrong with balance? It seems easy to agree to this condition. If this has been you - STOP.

We don't need to balance technology with non-technology.Technology is a tool and resource that we have at our disposal to use effectively and efficiently for our needs. For many people technology is the way they do business, pleasure, fitness, and more, and that's okay.

If you're wondering why...

Think about it.

When you talk about reading books, do you often hear, "balance is key?" When you talk about fitness, do you often hear, balance is key? How about writing? How about talking to friends? How about networking with experts? How about playing chess? How about making documentaries? How about solving complex equations? How about social action? How about doing research? All those things can be accomplished with tech though it often is not obvious to the observer. What looks like screen-staring is often something even Luddites can value.

Integration is a much better word. Balance suggests there is a predetermined percentage or number. Integration, properly understood, is about appropriate usage around questions: What is the purpose? Who is using? What is the context? Good teachers recognize this. The tech gurus who never really taught and raced through the classroom do not get it.

The student skill one is not surprising. Texting and keyboarding are different skills. Teacher buy-in is a little less the way it is understood. Research is showing teachers ask for different supports to help with competency and confidence. Lack of perceived choice is another issue. I know my way around digital tools and do not want to be told by a School manager who spent five years in the classroom what I should do. Is it all teachers? None mentioned lack of administrative support and research indicates that is a barrier.

If an inquiry-based system is to succeed, we’ll need really good human beings in the classroom who know their field, but who also radiate the kind of positive, non-judgmental love that helps students open their minds and hearts.

I read Don Idhe and Martin Heidegger. Both argue that the tools we use do amplify and reduce at the same time. Heidegger, in particular, argued technology is a way of conversing with our tools, including listening to them, that involves being a crafts person. Rather than technology being teaching, it is conversation which includes teaching and much more.

I end this small run of blog posts with the question posed by Professor Brian Boyd at the beginning of our evening: Do we want to close the achievement gap? We know we can close the gap. It’s been done or almost been done before in Scottish education, but the answers have been ignored as they pass us by. The...

Ivon Prefontaine's insight:

Eliminating the vocational/professional divide is not a new idea. John Dewey proposed that all life is a vocation and then we choose specific vocations within that are of interest to us. Thomas Merton, a Trappist Monk, connected vocation and voice. What we do should give our lives voice. If it doesn't we are doing the wrong things, likely doing someone else's work which is labour in Arendtian terms.

Multitasking is not just about digital tools. It covers a broad range of contemporary issues and the article begins with just such a point. The length of classes are 4-6 times the length of many students' attention spans and we don't think that will be a problem?

"as early as the first century AD, Plutarch proposed that 'a learner is not a vessel to be filled, but a fire to be lighted.'" Indeed, many educational philosophers including Malcolm Shepard Knowles and Paulo Freire have echoed this sentiment of student as creator, not merely a receiver, of knowledge. My question is, building on the idea of "scaffolding" as described in this article, how can a teacher provide activities that present questions for critical thinking. So much benefit comes from face-to-face interactions and so much of self-directed learning does take place in the digital realm. How can the modern instructor merge these two roles?

When it comes to online higher education, personalized learning is a concept for structuring classes that is in need of more research. In order to better define and classify personalized learning for proper application in the online classroom, how does self-direction fit into the equation? Is self-directed learning a necessary component of personalized learning? Take a peek at this article and identify both the similarities and differences between self-directed and personalized learning. Consider that in light of their differences, perhaps personalized learning is only successful if students are self--directed by nature.

“ I’ve started recognizing a common thread to the latest trends in teaching. Flipped learning, blending learning, student-centered learning, project-based learning, and even self-organized learning—they all marginalize the teacher’s expertise. Or, to put it more euphemistically, they all transform the teacher into a more facilitative role.”

There are two things that stood out for me in this article. First, Derrida's concept of deconstruction is a critical deconstructing of what we think is reality. His writing about teaching would not have eliminated the teacher and replaced the teacher with a burger flipper. The teacher's role would certainly transform and move beyond what we understand it to be, but it would be reconstructed to be further deconstructed.

The second point is that teaching is about leading and relating to students. That does not mean we do without teachers. It means that teachers are finding their way along the path.

By Allan Alach I welcome suggested articles, so if you come across a gem, email it to me at allanalach@inspire.net.nz This week’s homework! Increasing Student Voice in Local Schools and Districts A...

Ivon Prefontaine's insight:

There are good looking articles linked in the post. We have to be careful that our teaching and student learning is grounded in the present. It does not mean not planning for the future, but planning for it differently and Maxine Greene put it, "releasing the imagination."

Teacher Cheryl Mizerny is not anti-tech, just anti-bad pedagogy – the kind that crops up when the garnish of tech overshadows the deep learning that can happen when teaching is "brain based, not screen-based." Make the app fit the lesson, she says,...

We need to use digital tools in meaningful ways. Technology is about a conversation with and about our tools. Whitehead used the word genius to describe the way teachers care for the place, people, and tools they are in relationship with. Heidegger likened using tools to good and thoughtful craftsmanship.

Wed do have to be careful. I know people who cannot write worth a crap, publish, and edit all the time justifying their blog postings by saying they are out there testing the ideas. That is just a load of horse manure.

The Simple Terms To Manage Increasingly Complex Social InteractionsCreating New Terms For Social Interactionsby Terry HeickPreventing bullying is just as likely as preventing poverty, racism, or violence.

Education conferences are like church. Therefore, I must be devout. I attend at least one education conference a month. And although I do enjoy these gatherings—and I will continue to speak at, participate in, and live tweet these events—I also need to be honest: sometimes they feel more like religious [...]

Former journalist and current educator Reuben Loewy as spent recent years creating a digital curriculum that aims to teach high school students beyond throwing new technology at students and instead giving students a complete education on digital...

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